Hi everyone,
It is safe to say there are plenty of tired bodies out there still trying to recharge and recover after another absolutely fantastic 60th Anniversary SBS Bank Tour of Southland over the past week. It was a beauty from start to finish and Olympian Aaron Gate really showed the mettle he is made of to take out the Tour win after some close racing across the week. Well done to everyone who raced this year – some great personal results and outstanding achievements from the young faces and not so young carving up the countryside this year as part of the 20 teams involved.
To all the fabulous volunteers who helped to make it happen as part of Bruce’s loyal team and all the community sponsors and supporters who know the value and esteem of this truly great event – you are all fantastic!
Good luck to all the wonderful riders who signed off on their final Tour this year who have been a huge part of the event over the many years. You will be missed but greatly remembered – the next chapter awaits you all.
Equipment Damage and Disruption
It has been brought to our attention that wiring on the timing gates on the front straight has been completely ripped out sometime in the past week. If damage like this happens to equipment during your session – or you become aware of it – can you please notify the office promptly so the appropriate steps can be taken to repair things so everyone else can continue use them. It is disruptive to leave other sessions that have been planned around using timing gates having to re-plan on the spot.
Bike pumps are also being tampered with and a Sunday session was delayed by more than half an hour due to all the pump fittings being taken off. Pump fittings are to stay on the pumps please and are not to be removed. Again it is common courtesy to all other riders to respect the property and equipment that is made available. Thank you for your help in ensuring this going forward.
Southland Track Champs
We are now turning our attention towards the Southland Trak Championships, running from Friday 25 to 27, and being only three weeks away we would love to hear from all those who will be around during the event and available to lend a hand please, as many of our loyal workers are actually racing at these champs. Let me know at [email protected] if you can help on the Friday night, Saturday and/or Sunday and if you have any preference of what you would like to do.
Meanwhile, riders get registering online now the event is already attracting our mates from further north, as a great lead-in to the National Track Champs in the New Year.
Junior Achievements
It's been a special week for Bradly Knipe. He's been in Glasgow riding in the Elite NZ Team taking part in the World Cup. He was also honoured at the Southland Secondary Schools Sports Awards by being named Senior Sportsman of the Year - a fantastic acknowledgement of his efforts winning the Junior World Track Cycling in the sprint. His mum and dad were pretty stoked to be there to see him recognised.
Also finalists in the Senior men section were Tom Sexton (who received a highly commended award in recognition of his superb effort in the team pursuit at the Junior Worlds) and Corbin Strong, while Emily Paterson was a finalist in the Junior sportswoman section and received the Future Champion Cycling Award.
It’s fantastic to see our young members dominate this annual awards event so well done to all those who were nominated.
Baxter & Neilson Junior Racing Updates
Another great turnout and racing results again on Saturday night with plenty of PBs leading up to the Southland Track Champs at the end of the month – great timeing kids! Check out the latest series winners and tally results The last two race nights are on 19 November and 3 December, just before and just after the Track Champs. Good luck team!
Saturday Racing
The next race will be the Thornbury Graded (a South Port points series race) this Saturday November 12, at the usual summer time of 10.30am. Race manager is Marty Lohrey and marshals are Blake Tait-Jones,, Corbin Strong and Matt Nunn. If you cannot fulfil your duties, please find a replacement and notify the office thank you. Register online here
Zookeepers Café Wednesday Worlds
Don’t forget to head along to the Tisbury School corner at 6pm each week for 6.30pm race starts, $5 per rider with social and junior grades too. Sorry about sending some astray with thinking there was a race last week – I forgot the last sentence on the paragraph that day. It resumes this week though.
Friday Night Racing
There was a huge turnout last Friday night for racing and a big thank you to those who helped to ensure the programme ran through smoothly. View the results here
This Friday 6pm is programme 3
Licensing and Memberships
2017 memberships and licensing is now available for updating online here If you have any queries about how to go about this or need to know more, feel free to contact me [email protected]. For any newbies to track events, you need to be a member of Cycling Southland and licenced with Cycling New Zealand to compete at the upcoming Southland Track Championships and New Year events, including the Track Nationals.
Otago Carnival and Criterium
This Saturday Cycling Otago are hosting a Crit and track Carnival
Check out the details here
Well enjoy your week ahead and keep up the training for the Southland Champs – it’s going to be another fantastic event!